by Ravi Ladduwahetty

Minister of Enterprise Development, Investment Promotion, Industrial Policy and Constitutional Affairs Prof. G. L. Peiris yesterday called upon the people to decide whether they wanted the peace process to proceed or not.

" There are certain political elements whose principal aim is to sabotage the peace process by calling upon the Government to tear up the ceasefire agreement between the Government and LTTE, and send back the members of the Sri Lankan Monitoring Mission and Norwegian peace facilitators back to their respective countries," Prof. Peiris told the 13th Facets Gem and Jewellery Show at the Hilton, Colombo yesterday morning. The Government is acutely aware that it is easy to comply with the requests of these political elements who are trying to sabotage the peace process.

We all know that if we go ahead with that the war which was not present in this country for the last 18 months, will be at our doorstep, Prof. Peiris said. Although, these malevolent political elements are trying their utmost to sabotage the peace process, a majority of the people are not in agreement with these sentiments. So, it is upto the people who are going to vote at the forthcoming Provincial Council elections to decide whether they want durable peace or not, the Minister added. Describing the current economic backdrop in the wake of the eighteen-month ceasefire which has steadfastly held, Prof. Peiris said that there was a general economic renaissance in the country where development was going to be accelerated.

He said that Padaviya which upto recently was the hotbed of LTTE terrorism, was now a centre for economic growth.

The Minister who did a recent tour of the Anuradhapura district, said that the reservoirs at Medawachchiya were being restored, facilitating irrigated water for cultivation for thousands of farmers. There are rural schools for which rehabilitation works were already being effected. The